Posts tagged with: ebook

Back in February 2011 my free read, Holiday Hostage went live. It’s been available for way over a year with close to 100,000 downloads. What did the experience teach me? I don’t know. Did offering a sample of my writing drive my sales up? Not sure. Would I do it again? Haven’t decided.

Thanks for stopping by.

No! Don’t go! There’s more.

It was a rush to have well over 50,000 copies downloaded in the first few month alone. How many of those have actually been read? Again, I don’t know. Of the samples actually read by readers, how many truly liked the story? I wish I knew. Or maybe I don’t. If anyone in fact did read it, did they buy one of my other stories? Yes. Two people that I know of. One hated both (I know – why did she buy my book if she disliked my free story – can’t answer that – I’m no psychologist). But one person liked the free story and loved the purchased story. Or she felt sorry for me and was being super kind. Either way, I’ll take it.

From speaking with other authors who have offered free reads, the consensus seems to be that it is a double-edged sword. Here’s my take on free. Cheap people, me included, will download something free. Because, well, because it’s free. Why not? What do you have to lose? I’ve done it myself. My mother does it. We come from a long line of cheap (I mean thrifty) ancestors. On Ancestory.com just type in the keyword cheap. Thems m’ people. We dine on Costco samples, clip mass coupons and download free books to our shiny e-reader that we bought on clearance.

Here’s my theory: spacenut333 who loves to take long walks on the beach, travel exotic places collecting souvenir snow globes, and who reads futuristic sci-fi has downloaded my free story and hates it because she doesn’t like contemporary romantic comedy. Or she doesn’t think I’m funny. Her cat that she reads aloud to doesn’t think I’m funny either. And spacenut333 and her cat collectively send me death threats via an Amazon review. Not a fan. I get it.

My next theory is mine and mine alone. It’s not 100% accurate or scientifically proven. Stay with me. If you get something for free, you don’t appreciate it as much as if you pay for it. Unless your grandmother gave it to you. Why? I don’t know. Maybe people are afraid to admit in a public forum that they paid good money for a book they don’t like. They got suckered by a pretty cover and a flowery blurb. Mostly, if you’ve got money on the line, you’re probably going to investigate before buying. You’ll read the first chapter and/or check out the reviews and not buy a contemporary romantic comedy if you really like steampunk or fantasy.

Lastly, after years of toiling in customer service, I think people in general are more apt to complain than compliment. Hence my many 1 star reviews, with lovely comments like “wish I could rate it lower”. Add the anonymity of the Internet…

I can only hope that of the thousands of copies of Holiday Hostage that were downloaded, some people actually read the story and enjoyed the read and will give me another shot to entertain them in the future.

How ‘bout you? What’s your take of free reads? Love ‘em? Hate ‘em? Anyone found a “must read” author from a free story?

When our Darynda Jones won a RITA in July, she encouraged me rub her statuette after the awards ceremony. “For good luck,” she said. I believe everything Ms. Jones says, so I immediately took her up on that offer.

Darynda’s lucky RITA statuette

And wouldn’t you know it? Good fortune started pouring in faster than I could say, “There’s no place like the best-seller lists.” I scored a front-row seat at a Chris Isaak concert near San Fran two days before the gig without even trying. Swoon. It did cost a small fortune, but let’s not quibble. Guitar tech, Ken Cheatwood, was only too happy to chat with me about Chris’s guitars before the band went on. My hands shook as I snapped photos of him and the guitars. He smiled and told me there was no need to be nervous. I told him I was trembling due to the cold mountain air. In actual fact, I really was freaking out, but I didn’t want to seem uncool by saying so. Somehow I don’t think I fooled Ken.

Chris Isaak in a modest mirror-ball suit

Next night, I drove to the same mountain-top venue to see Duran Duran‘s gig, and narrowly avoided a low-speed collision with a tree and a parking attendant (Hey, I don’t normally drive on the American side of the road.) The parking attendant was very kind, and no there was no damage done to his limbs or the tree’s limbs. Lucky!

The following morning, Duran Duran’s frontman Simon Le Bon posted a suggestive tweet about the scorching Bay Area weather. I responded within 20 seconds and he retweeted me to his 80,000+ followers. Double swoon. Seriously, this was like close encounters of the third kind — contact with a higher life form, someone I’ve idolized for three decades. If we’re going be technical, he didn’t write back to me per se, but the episode turned me into a grinning fool for a week. It ties in spookily well with my next nugget of luck, the biggest of all…

The retweet that made my day

Upon my arrival from the U.S. in mid-August, I noticed an email from HarperCollins Australia in my inbox. Figuring it had to be a rejection (because how lucky can one person be?) I didn’t open it right away. But when I did… Oh, my. There was my very first acceptance letter for a work of fiction – a sweet short story called The Tweetest Thing, which was e-published TODAY as part of an anthology, URL Love: From Texting to Twitter, the Hottest Online Love Stories.

How does my short story tie in with Simon Le Bon’s retweet? I was inspired to write The Tweetest Thing after seeing Duran Duran live for the first time back in March. In the story, introverted and sensible Jess connects with a music icon via Twitter, but will they go one step further into the real world? In real life, introverted and often silly Vanessa connects with a music icon via Twitter. It’s a case of life imitating art, however, I can assure readers, my husband and the gorgeous Mrs. Yasmin Le Bon that the real-life cyber connection ended very quickly!

Thank you for bearing with the blog’s temporarily sedate server speed today. If you’re “Hungry like the wolf,” grab a snack and let’s talk. One commenter will receive a $10 Amazon gift card. Have you interacted with your idols through social media? Want to chat about Simon and Yasmin Le Bon, Duran Duran and/or Chris Isaak? Did getting up close and personal with Darynda’s RITA Award bring you good luck, too?

Today was supposed to be my release day for SCOTSMEN PREFER BLONDES. Yay! Except…it’s not. It’s awesome that a self-published author can get a book out quickly, but I’m still learning how to estimate publication dates so that I don’t overpromise and underdeliver (as I did in this case, sigh). I’m currently waiting to get the book back from my formatter, so it should be up in the next two weeks. And there will be much rejoicing throughout the land (or at least my apartment) when that happens!

In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to share my writing process for this book. Or lack of process – it depends on what you think ‘process’ should be. If you’ve had a book turn into a nightmare of rewrites and revisions, read on – we can commiserate together. Here’s a brief timeline:

November 2004: I started a NaNoWriMo project about a woman whose mother arranges for her to marry a Scottish earl. I got ~10000 words into the story before life (in the form of Thanksgiving dinner for forty people) intervened.

2005-2007: I kept working on this project in fits and starts, but I spent six months in India and three months in Ireland for work, and life kept getting in the way. Excuses, excuses…but I knew that the story was about a woman who secretly wrote Gothic romances, and her fear that marriage would prevent her from ever writing again. Malcolm and Amelia’s characters were pretty set at this point, even if my feelings about the plot were “who needs plot when you have long, endless banter!” Ha.

2008: I took a leave of absence from the day job and finished the book (then called AN INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE) in time to enter it in the 2009 Golden Heart contest. Then I started querying like mad and overmedicating myself with coffee/chocolate/wine while I waited to hear back.

2009: I finaled in the Golden Heart and became a Ruby!! (which, to be honest, was one of the best parts of this whole journey). I also signed with a fabulous agent shortly after finaling, and eventually went on to win the Regency category.

2010: We heard back from the last editor who had the book, and even though she’d taken it to the acquisitions team, they declined it. I wailed and gnashed my teeth and tore my garments (or, rather, drank wine and had a surly NCIS marathon). Then I wrote ONE NIGHT TO SCANDAL, which eventually became the book that came out two months ago (HEIRESS WITHOUT A CAUSE).

2011: HEIRESS WITHOUT A CAUSE finaled in the Golden Heart (yay!) but didn’t sell to a publishing house (boo!). So my agent and I agreed that I would self-publish. I blithely said I would release HEIRESS and SCOTSMEN back to back, since they were already done. Stupid. Here’s what really happened:

October 2011: Oooh! I can’t wait to revisit SCOTSMEN and fix a few little things!

November 2011: There are more things to fix than I thought there were [note my utter disregard of plot when I first wrote it]…but I think I can salvage almost all of it.

December 2011: I’ll rewrite the first half and salvage the second. And I’ll numb the pain by watching several seasons of “Doctor Who” and eating every Midwestern delicacy my mother can feed me over Christmas.

January 2012: Maybe I’ll rewrite the second half too…

February 2012: What the %*#& have I done?! Is this a Frankenstein’s monster? Or is it actually better? I don’t know anymore – I can’t see the manuscript anymore through my tangled, unwashed hair. It’s at this point that I hired a freelance editor who worked at HQN/MIRA for several years, and she assured me that it wasn’t a monster (although she might have felt differently if she’d seen my hair).

March 2012: I finished the rewrite! Yay! I estimate I kept ~5% of the original book. But it’s way better, and there’s actually a plot, which is kind of exciting. Then I sent it off to the formatter, and as soon as I get it back from them, it will be up on Amazon/Barnes and Noble/Kobo.

This whole process was painful, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. However, I’m certainly glad that I did it. I could have taken the shortcut and just fixed a few continuity details before putting the book up – and I’ll admit I was tempted. But even though speed and prolific output is important when self-publishing, it was important to me to put out the best book possible. That’s why I hired a book formatter rather than doing it myself; I could have done it myself, and the book would have come out on time, but the formatter will produce something better and prettier and more professional than what I’m currently capable of.

I’m also coming to realize and accept that writing a whole book, and then tearing it apart and rewriting it, may be my process. I don’t want to admit that — I want to be the writer who can write a book once, do a couple of editing passes, and be done. But I think that I’m just enough of a pantser that I have to feel my way through the book on the first draft, and then rewrite it all once I have a better view of where the characters are going.

I could go on endlessly about process, but I’ll spare you. If you do want to hear more, though, I recently did an Authors@Google talk in which the interviewer asked me about process, self-publishing, and leaving the day job – you can watch it here:

Do you have any projects sitting under your bed that you want to revisit? Have you rewritten something you wrote years ago? Or is your process totally different? I would love to hear about your projects – and a lucky commenter will win a copy of SCOTSMEN PREFER BLONDES (any available format) as soon as it comes out!

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Sara Ramsey writes fun, feisty Regency historical romance. Her first book in the Muses of Mayfair series, HEIRESS WITHOUT A CAUSE, is out now on Amazon, Nook, and Kobo. Her second book, SCOTSMEN PREFER BLONDES, will release in early April. You can find more information about her writing (and participate in her current contest for chances to win books, gift cards, etc.) at www.sararamsey.com.

Yesterday’s eBooks for Everyone Else conference was an amazing one-day event about all aspects of digital publishing, from formatting and uploading to pricing and marketing. The event, run by Publishers Launch, brought together approximately 100 publishers, agents, authors, and vendors for a quick and dirty slog through a very ambitious list of topics.

I could probably write a novella about this conference, but I’ll highlight a few of my key takeaways for you. If you want my raw notes, you can read my Twitter feed from yesterday (http://twitter.com/#!/Sara_Ramsey) since I wrote 100+ tweets about what I was hearing throughout the day.

One additional note: some of this is more focused, at least on the surface, around epublishing. However, I think that savvy authors should keep track of what’s happening in channels other than their own and implement approaches that work — whether that’s epubs borrowing from what traditional publishers do, or vice versa.

And finally, any errors in quotes/attribution are my own, and I’ll fix anything that is pointed out to me. Now that I’ve caveated this post to death, let’s move on!

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1) Discoverability

Discoverability is all about how readers find your book. In the good old days, a reader might stumble across your book in a bookstore, love the cover, and pick it up. But people who shop for books online are less likely to impulse buy; one stat quoted was that impulse buying drops by 9% when people shop online. And if a reader doesn’t know they’re looking for you, how can they find you when search terms are usually so specific and targeted?

There are a couple of solutions for this. One is more the publisher’s responsibility (or the indie writer’s responsibility, if managing their own uploads): creating excellent “metadata” for the book. That covers everything from descriptions of the book with keywords relevant to that genre, to spelling the title and author name correctly. This information is vital to whether your book can be found — for example, if I accidentally enter my name as “Sarah Ramsey” someplace instead of “Sara Ramsey”, that book wouldn’t be found by anyone searching for me directly. So, get your data straight, and make sure you understand metadata before taking the DIY approach.

Another solution is not on the author side, but on the distributor side. I personally don’t browse much on Amazon, B&N, etc., but Book Country did a really cool presentation on how one can browse through content there. Because they’re targeting genre fiction, they’re working on making genre books more discoverable — including using a cool visualization of books, almost like a periodic table, to show you what books are clustered around a book that you already love.

Bottom line: if no one can find your book, you’re toast. Getting discoverability right is perhaps the single most important thing you can do (after you write a fabulous book, of course!).

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2) Marketing

Ah, marketing. The very word gives a lot of authors hives. I suppose the good news is that no one has the perfect marketing formula, so no one can tell you you’ve screwed up

Seriously, though, there are viable options in both traditional/digital marketing and in social media, if you’re willing to take the plunge. On the more traditional, direct to customer marketing side, Michael Tamblyn of Kobo pointed to Ruth Ann Nordin as an example of someone who does almost no social media, but has built a robust email newsletter mailing list and does most of her marketing direct to her established reader base. Bob Mayer has also had success running Google and Facebook ads in an effort to build brand awareness — he gets very few clicks, but by targeting his ads at the right places, he can get readers used to seeing his name and prime them to buy his book later.

On the social media side, it isn’t as simple as going on Facebook and playing Farmville all day. It’s important to remember that you are what you tweet. Iris Blasi said that “you are advertising the best version of yourself” — in other words, be yourself, but make sure ‘yourself’ is filtered through the awareness that you’re engaging with your audience, not your mom or your best friend.

Also, you need to know where your audience is. If you’re writing historical fiction, where do the history buffs hang out online? Is your story set during the Civil War and likely to attract older men? Or is it a Jane Austen or Tudor-era story that might appeal to women? Are you writing for teenagers? You need to identify your audience, then find them online and interact with them where they already are.

Surprisingly, one market research tidbit that came out was that teenagers may spend the most time on Facebook, but they don’t engage with marketing there. They buy primarily based on reviews from their peers, not on marketing-driven interaction. Even more surprisingly (to me), women in the 40+ age bracket were more likely to buy based on Facebook interaction and discussion, even if they spend less time there than teens. This doesn’t mean you have to be on Facebook (just because someone is likely to buy on Facebook doesn’t mean your audience is there — averages don’t necessarily apply to the specifics of your niche), but it’s worth considering where your audience can be reached. The market research came from Bowker, who is doing a ton of work on genre-specific audience identification.

Bottom line: know your audience and interact with them when and where you can.

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3) The future of agents

I won’t spend a lot of time on this, but it’s no surprise that agents are being forced to rethink their business models. The agent panel at the end of the day included some powerhouses (Scott Waxman, Deidre Knight, Ted Weinstein, and Laura Rennert), and they’re all working in a variety of ways to provide new ebook services to their clients while attempting to build sustainable long-term businesses.

Ted Weinstein laid it out very clearly: he thinks that agents will either become a) Hollywood style agents who only work with the biggest, splashiest clients on the most surefire projects; b) small publishers themselves; or c) more like a CEO/career manager who works with a much smaller subset of clients but manages all aspects of their career (such as building a speaking career for an author who is already a successful nonfiction expert). Every agent will choose a different path that suits them, but eventually most agents will have to make hard choices about what their business will look like.

Bottom line: Agencies are in flux, but any agent worth his/her salt is thinking hard about what the future looks like for them. My own personal opinion (not endorsed by anyone) is that it’s still worth signing with an agent depending on your goals, and I would sign with mine all over again in a heartbeat. But if the agent isn’t willing to have a conversation with you about the agency’s future (or predicts something that feels totally crazy), that would be a major red flag for me.

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That’s the bulk of the recap. There was a lot more detail about technological solutions, pricing, conversions, more on metadata, etc., but this post is too long as it is. I’ll check in throughout the day on the comments here and answer any questions, or feel free to tweet or email me (dearsara AT sararamsey DOT com) directly!

“Rowan is definitely an author to watch!”~ Alyssa Day, New York Times bestselling author.

Cate Rowan is a successful Indie author whose latest fantasy romance novel, THE SOURCE OF MAGIC, releases today. Cate has generously agreed to share her knowledge of the much-discussed, little-understood world of Indie publishing and her accomplishments in that arena.

In addition to a Ph.D. in the biological sciences, Cate has washed laundry in a crocodile-infested African lake, parasailed over Cabo, had monkeys poop in her hair, and swum with dolphins, but she says her best adventures occur in the worlds she creates in her lush fantasy romances. Her novels about magic, danger and passion in faraway realms have won more than thirty awards, including the esteemed Romance Writers of America Golden Heart® contest—twice!

I was eager to discover just what magic Cate had discovered in this new realm of Indie publishing and she was generously eager to share.

WIN: Comment to enter the drawing to win 1 electronic copy of The Source of Magic or 1 3-day coupon for Smashwords discounting The Source of Magic on that site.

Joan:Cate has won enough awards to make me dizzy! Between 5 manuscripts, she’s placed or won in more than 35 contests, including a double RWA Golden Heart finalist with her previous release, Kismet’s Kiss.

Cate, what experience have you gained from your successes with contests? What advice would you give other authors in consideration of entering or not?

Cate: I’m a very practical gal, so after the first few times I entered, contests became a means to an end for me. I entered them to try to get my work in front of particular editors, so I choose contests based on the final round judges. Even though feedback and suggestions weren’t my main focus, they were a terrific bonus.

I never entered contests judged by agents because I wanted to enter ones in which the final judge could actually buy the book. Query letters were my solution for agents, and over the years I received six agent offers and hired three. I also sent queries to editors and didn’t rely solely on the contest circuit. Those queries got me two small press contract offers, though in the end I decided to self-publish.

(Joan: I also have to add a note from Cate’s website that states “…when NYT and USA Today bestseller Alyssa Day read the opening of Kismet’s Kiss in a contest, she loved it so much she offered a cover blurb for it.” Definitely a fringe benefit of contests, IMHO.)

Joan:I have to admit, I know very little about “Indie” publishing. Not for lack of interest, but for lack of time to investigate. Can you give us the nuts and bolts of it? What it is exactly? How does it differ from self-publishing, small-publisher publishing and/or e-publishing?

Cate: I’m an indie author, which means I’ve chosen to self-publish my books. Some people feel that the word “indie” should be reserved for “indie publishers”–that is, small publishers outside NY–but, well, that battle over semantics seems lost already.

Joan:I have heard very positive results from authors who have gone the indie or self-publishing routes. What benefits do you feel you’ve experienced by going the indie route over traditional publishing?

Cate:

(1) Control. For example, I get to choose the title and have total say over the cover. Of course, having full control also means full responsibility! If something goes wrong, it’s up to me to fix it.

(2) Flexibility. I actually can fix it! If I decide to tweak a wording or I spot a typo, I get to change it. I don’t have to worry about whether there will be another print run so it can be corrected. I simply do it, and the update will be available within a day at most of the e-stores.

(3) Information. I know my sales figures at the major stores to the minute and can see if a marketing strategy is working and would be worth pursuing again.

(4) Money. At Amazon, for example, I get between 35 and 70% of the purchase price for every copy sold. For books priced between $2.99 and $9.99, Amazon pays 70% for every US, UK or German sale, and 35% for sales to other countries. (Rumor has it that Canada will be added to the 70% list soon.)

I don’t have tens of thousands of books available on physical bookstore shelves, but I do make a larger chunk of money per sale and need far fewer sales to make X amount of money. Many romance readers have fallen in love with their e-readers now prefer digital books, so it works out well. Although I have a print copy of my first book available, I sell about 100 digital copies for every print sale. That kind of ratio is pretty common for indies.

(5) Focus. I don’t need to spend time seeking agents or editors now. The time I invest in my writing pays off directly in sales.

Joan:Who would you say indie authordom is suited for?

Cate:Do-it-yourselfers like me love indie–but I think every author should keep an eye on the benefits of modern self-publishing. Cover art and formatting can be done through freelancers if you don’t have the DIY gene. Established authors can make great money with their backlists and other books NY doesn’t think it can market, and newer authors (with polished and edited manuscripts, ahem!) can now reach readers directly.

For me, that’s the very best benefit for authors–readers gaining access to the work we’ve loved and slaved over. After more than a decade of writing alone, my first fan letter sent me into joyful sobs for a good fifteen minutes. Talk about validation! And I didn’t need an agent or a publisher to get it.

Because of the proliferation of self-publishing, I see many genres shifting and blossoming and marketing boundaries breaking down. Readers can now find a much wider variety of storylines than there used to be, and I think that change will continue.

But I beg of all the potential indie authors out there: please don’t put your book up for sale until it’s ready! Get some professional editing, or at the very least a really thorough critique group that pushes you about things to correct and improve long before you consider going indie. Yes, you can fix things later if you must, but you don’t want to ruin your reputation with readers before you have that chance.

Joan:If you’re willing, Cate, would you give us more information on your sales figures for other authors considering the indie route?

Cate: I’ve had an interesting time with sales. (In a good way, not in a “may you live in interesting times” kind of way.) It took me a little over five months to sell 557 copies of Kismet’s Kiss and earn my first $1000. Sales were accelerating, and it took me only a month and a half to earn the next $500.And then something even more fantastic happened. I needed surgery and was going to be away from home for a few weeks, so I worked hard to get The Source of Magic up before I left. I wasn’t planning to do any marketing for it, or really even to tell anyone until today during the official release; I mainly put it up in case readers wanted it as soon as they finished Kiss. I uploaded it on April 17 and basically left it alone. It sold a few copies, probably based on the excerpt in the back of Kiss–and then somehow the B&N sales fairy blessed it. Suddenly I was selling 70 copies a day there. With no marketing at all, and no reviews up. I still don’t know what happened, but I’m grateful!

The surge didn’t last forever, but now I’m selling four times as many copies each day as I did with just Kismet’s Kiss alone, even though I only have two books available. Put up a second book and get four times as many sales? I like that math.

More math: As of yesterday, I’ve sold 2181 copies of my books (1330 of Kismet’s Kiss and 851 of The Source of Magic) and made close to $4000. The vast majority of those copies have been ebooks sold at $2.99, though I’ve toyed briefly with $.99 and $3.99 for Kiss. That’s fantastic to me, but if you want to see more numbers, check out those of my friend Theresa Ragan. Prepare to have your socks blown to the stratosphere!

So even though this is the official release day of The Source of Magic, I guess it’s an early bloomer. Or a late one–see below!

Joan:What is it about the genre of fantasy romance draws you?

Cate:I’ve always loved the idea of magic in alternate worlds, not to mention the idea of how inborn magic could change the interpersonal dynamics between a heroine and hero. Plus, with fantasy romance I get to make s…, um, stuff up. It’s pretty freeing. (grin)

Joan:What heat level would you rate The Source of Magic?

Cate:On a scale of 1-5, it’s a 3 or 3.5. It’s definitely not chaste, yet the main focus is on the love story outside the bedroom. That being said, the particular inborn magic of this hero and heroine, um…adds to the flavor of the love scenes. 😉

Joan:How long did it take you to write The Source of Magic?

Cate:Gosh…great question. I might need an outside verdict on that.

It took me a week or two to write the opening chapters, which I then entered in the Winning Beginnings contest (now known as The Sheila). That was my first contest, and I was gobsmacked that Source became a finalist, and then placed second and got a request.

I like having outside deadlines, and suddenly I had one! I got my butt into the writing chair and finished the book in about three months. I stocked up on microwave dinners and literally didn’t leave my house for a month, except to walk downstairs to the first floor of my apartment building to get my mail. When I was finally done, driving to the post office to send the manuscript to the editor was a freaky experience. Suddenly I was reminded that other people existed in the world!

Of course, that was in 2001, and I’ve made plenty of revisions to it since then. So to answer your question, the writing time could either be a few months or more than a ten years.

Joan:Are Kismet’s Kiss and The Source of Magic linked? How?

Cate:The Source of Magic is a prequel to Kismet’s Kiss, though both stand alone. They take place a couple of decades apart and in different settings on the same fantasy world–in a medieval “Europeanesque” realm for The Source of Magic and a medieval “Middle Easternesque” realm for Kismet’s Kiss. Because the people on this world live long lives (hundreds of years), I was able to share some characters in the two books.

Joan:Would you say The Source of Magic is the book of your heart? Why?

Cate:Hmm, I’d probably have to give that mantle to Kismet’s Kiss, just because it’s such an unusual romance in terms of setting and storyline. But The Source of Magic was my first book, so it’s definitely my baby. Heck, if it hadn’t been for Source, I’d never have dreamed of this particular fantasy world, and now I could easily write twelve or thirteen books in it!

I’d like to thank Cate for her insight into indie publishing and her candid information regarding sales figures–valuable information to authors which is notoriously difficult to come by–but most of all, congratulate Cate on her new release: The Source of Magic.

Enter to win a copy by leaving a comment. Cate will be popping in and out to respond to questions and comments.

Yes, my book is a little late to the Christmas party or early, however you want to look at it. During the transition of Cerridwen Press being absorbed into Ellora’s Cave, my little freebee got put on hold. But it’s here today. Cross fingers. Rub your lucky rabbit’s foot or whatever you rub to get lucky.

TODAY is the last day you can download The Ghost Exterminator: A Love Storyfrom Borders.com absolutely free! Hailed as “funny, sexy, and all over a good read” by Paranormal Romance Reviews and awarded 4.5 Stars by Romantic Times Reviews, the print edition of The Ghost Exterminator: A Love Story will be coming to a brick and mortar bookstore near you November 1st, but you can get your FREE digital copy today, courtesy of Borders & Samhain Publishing.

And, later this week…

The ebook ofThe Ghost Shrink, the Accidental Gigolo & the Poltergeist Accountantwill be free for a limited time only from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, courtesy of Samhain Publishing. In the mood for a quick, light-hearted read? Just download the first story of the Karmic Consultants series for Nook, Kindle, or Kindle for PC/iPhone (so even if you don’t have an ereader yet you can snag a free copy!). That’s right, ladies and gentlemen! From October 15th thru 28th, the first novella of the Karmic Consultants series is absolutely free! Tell your friends! Your copy is just a click away. Thank you and happy reading!

Welcome to a combination of a Ruby Sister Release Day and a Free-for-All Friday about the changing publishing industry!

I’m proud to announce the release of my debut book, a two-time Golden Heart® Finalist, eight-time contest finalist and three-time winner, Kismet’s Kiss. Along the way, Kismet’s Kiss received three agent offers and two publishing offers from small presses.

Here’s the kicker: I’m choosing to publish this book myself on the Amazon Kindle ebook platform. (I’ll also probably self-publish in print through Amazon’s CreateSpace program and I may add ebook distribution through Smashwords and/or Scribd.)

Are you scratching your head right now and wondering why the heck–after the above successes with contests, agents, and publishers–I’m choosing to self-publish an ebook with Amazon? There are numerous reasons (this decision has been a long time in the works, LOL), but here’s a taste:

With ebooks and online shopping, there’s no need to pick a single marketing box (like fantasy OR romance, but not both) for a novel so it can be classified for bookstore shelves–and no need to write a story so it will fit into a particular box. (For more on this, see a previous post.)

You gain a direct connection with readers–the people most writers truly want to reach–and you can write and publish at your own pace. (Note: Quality editing is a must for any author, self-published or not.)

You’ll enjoy greater ownership over (as well as responsibility for) your own novel. You get to follow through with your own vision from storyline to cover art to ebook formatting style. I added images to the ebook file and I had a ball putting them in. I got to be creative on multiple levels and make the book stand out. This thrilled me!

I know some folks are worried about ebooks, but in my personal opinion, e-readers and ebooks are an oncoming blessing for readers, for writers, and for books. For example, a recent article in PC World noted this: “Forrester Research estimates around 11 million Americans will own at least one digital reading device by the end of September… Amazon says people buy three times more books on their e-readers than they would with printed products.”

The new Kindles are $139 and $189. I suspect there will be a Kindle under $99 by Christmas and under $49 within a year and a half–and it will have good competition, too. E-readers will soon be a common tool for any avid reader. Do I think there’s an ebook revolution coming? YES.

Self-published ebooks can be offered at low prices (for example, Kismet’s Kiss is a mere $2.99 for the ebook) while offering high royalty rates to the author (Amazon offers authors 70%–about $2–from each $2.99 ebook sale). And when prices are low, more readers are willing to buy.

Kindle books can be read by anyone with a PC, Mac, iPhone, Android/Droid phone, or iPad. And books without digital rights management (DRM) can be converted into other formats (for example, for the Nook or Sony Reader, or PDF, RTF, TXT, etc.) through free software like Calibre. (Mine has no DRM. Convert away!)

So here are a few questions to start off our Free-for-All Friday discussion (but feel free to jump in with your own questions and ideas!): What does being “published” mean to you now? Has your definition shifted since you first dreamed of writing a book? If not, do you think it might shift in the future as e-readers become cheaper and more commonplace? What do you think the next five years of technology will bring to our industry?

A deadly epidemic strikes a sultan’s family and only a magical healer from an enemy land can save them. Soon Sultan Kuramos wonders if he can save his heart from the feisty infidel, a woman whose sorcery is condemned by his culture. Varene falls for him too, but can she relinquish her homeland and her principles for the sultan’s love–when he already has a harem?

“Magic, passion, and intrigue–Kismet’s Kiss has it all! Cate Rowan’s uniquely compelling fantasy debut is set in a fascinating and fully realized world where danger lurks in every shadow. Rowan is definitely an author to watch!”
– Alyssa Day, New York Times bestselling author

To buy Kismet’s Kiss (it’s just a wee $2.99, folks )or to read a free sample, head over to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0040SXS9S/. In fact, the Amazon listing is so brand-spankin’ new that it doesn’t even have a description up as of this writing–so you can read a full description at my website here.

I’m hijacking Free-For-All Friday today to have an open forum discussion about e-pubs. Lots of aspiring authors are hearing about the opportunities for writers in ebooks, but hesitant to take that direction and uninformed about what it entails. Today I’m here to answer any question you’ve got about e-publishers and I hope other electronically published authors will jump in with their two cents on these issues as well.